County Under-21 A Semi-Finals (Sunday, 18-April-99)

Ballintubber........0-15
Lahardane............0-6

Islandeady G.A.A. grounds was bathed in sunshine on Sunday, an unusual sight to see over the last few weeks, for this County Under-21 A semi-final between Ballintubber and Lahardane. In the end it was Ballintubber who ran out deserved and convincing winners. Ballintubber's top marksmen, Kieran Lally with three points and Lyndon Reilly with an impressive eight points were too much for the Lahardane defensive sextet to cope with as Ballintubber took over in the second half.

Judging by their impassioned pre-match pep talk Lahardane, perhaps the underdogs, were fired up for this encounter and following two Ballintubber wides, took the lead in the third minute when corner-forward Cormac Rowland stroked over a free from the right. However the Lahardane lead didn't last long as two minutes later Ballintubber's full-forward Kieran Lally pointed with a superb individual effort.

It was six minutes and three wides before the next score was registered by Lahardane's Cormac Rowland with a fine point from play. In the sixteenth minute Tubber keeper Paul Corbett was called into action for the first time when a long range Cormac Rowland free dipped viciously forcing the Ballintubber custodian to palm the ball away. Corbett's parry was cleared only as far as the waiting Lahardane midfielder Shane Blake who finished brilliantly from long range to extend his sides lead to two points.

In the ninteenth minute Lyndon Reilly scored the first of many frees to put a point between the sides. In the 23rd minute the teams were level when Reilly bisected the posts with his second free. Lahardane's hard working half-forward Vinnie Cawley scored a superb solo effort to restore the lead. However following some nice link up play involving Lyndon Reilly and Colm Staunton, Reilly scored his third point and in the 29th minute shot Ballintubber into the lead with a close-range free.

Reilly's all round play was magnificent and he almost got what would have been the score of the game when he implemented an amazing turn to bamboozle two Lahardane defenders forcing them to collide, only to shoot wide with his weaker left foot.

The half ended with Lyndon Reilly pointing another free to put Ballintubber two points up going into the break, with the half time scoreline reading, Ballintubber 0-6; Lahardane 0-4.

The second half saw Lahardane manage justtwo more scores as the notoriously mean Ballintubber defence shut up shop, while at the other end Ballintubber's forwards continued to torment their opponents with their pace and pin-point shooting.

The first score of the second half came from Kieran Lally who quickly followed this effort with a fantastic point from wide right put Ballintubber three points clear. In the 41st minute Lahardane's Declan Leonard, one of their few form forwards pointed brilliantly from an awkward angle.

Points from Lyndon Reilly (50) and Colm Staunton extended the tubber lead to six points. In the 49th minute half-forward John Kelly, who was unlucky not to get on the scoresheet before this showed wonderful skill and inventiveness to get away from the attentions of the Lahardane defence before pointing brilliantly.

Lyndon Reilly got his teams thirteenth score with a long range free and a minute later Kieran Lally grabbed his fouth point of the game. Four minutes from the end Cormac Rowland pointed his third score with his second free. But it failed to put any respectability on the scoreline with their opponents leading by eight points. Right on full-time Lyndon Reilly stroked over his eighth point to complete a fantastic personal and team performance to leave the full-time scoreline reading 0-15 to 0-6.

Lahardane: Daire Nolan, Aidan McDonnell, Damian Kelly, Ray McDermott, Sean Harte, Mervyn Marley, John McDonnell, Anthony McDermott, Shane Blake (0-1); Vinnie Cawley (0-1); Brian Rowland, Ross Nolan, Declan Leonard (0-1); Declan Garrett, Cormac Rowland (0-3).
Subs.: Sean Mcgreevey, Declan Waters.